Fall Features To Watch Before Thanksgiving

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All the skeletons have been taken down, and the Jack o’lanterns have rotted away for the year. After binge-watching Stranger Things, Season 2 and your favorite horror features all fall long, it’s easy to want to jump right into the holiday and winter classics. But I am here to remind you that there a select few films and animated specials that are perfect for this time of year. Best of all, these picks can be watched with the whole family. So sit back, grab your favorite flannel blanket and a warm cup of cocoa as I run down the five best fall features to watch before the holidays!

Photo Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

The classic that coined the phrase, “Those aren’t pillows!!!” Talk about a film full of laughs that equal out the amount of heartwarming moments. Planes, Trains & Automobiles is a Thanksgiving classic for the ages. For folks who have been living under a rock, the film stars Steve Martin, a marketing executive just looking to get home for the holidays. To “help” him through this process, Martin is teamed up with comedy alum, John Candy. The two trip, fall and smash their way across the sloshy cold roads of America in one of the funniest anti-buddy films of our time. I revisited this one recently and the heartstrings get tugged early on from Candy’s performance. Comedies these days follow a standard formula to build up the sentimental moments. P,T&A reminds you that it’s important to build the emotion early on, that way the adventure and laughs are that much more enjoyable throughout. This classic is up there with Young Frankenstein with constant repeatable laughs.

Photo Courtesy of Playbuzz

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

This 1973 animated feature airs each year, but I feel it does not get as much love as It’s the Great Pumpkin and A Charlie Brown Christmas. This year you should take another look at this Charles Schulz classic. Charlie Brown has been going from zero to hero since the Xmas special. Peppermint Patty intrudes on Chuck and invites herself and all their friends over to his house for Thanksgiving dinner. Only Charlie Brown is going away for dinner. This is when Linus the wise reminds Charlie Brown that he can serve one dinner early, then attend the other. Can ol’ blockhead pull this off in time to appease his savage friends? This special also includes music by the always wonderful Vince Guaraldi Qunitet. This is the first time we hear Vince sing on a track in any Peanuts holiday special. For that alone, it’s worth a rewatch!Photo Courtesy of Bloody Disgusting

The Addams Family Values

This Thanksgiving film is probably the most unique of them all. Never before has a sequel to a film based on a classic television series (still with me?) lived up to its predecessor like Values has. Some folks I feel watch it even more than the first, simply because of the Camp Chippewa story-line. In most film franchises with an already established cast, adding a new child into the mix can spell disaster. Luckily little Pubert Addams is only 30% of this film, while Joan Cusack and the camp scenes fill the rest. It’s off to Camp Chippewa for Pugsley & Wednesday who have been sent away by their new nanny. These two hellions adapting to normal children and camp counselors Gary Granger and Becky-Martin Granger is honestly the gravy on the turkey for this film. What they do to their Thanksgiving play almost tops the bloodbath in the last films auditorium performance. In this final Addams Family film, the true meaning of Thanksgiving is brought to light in the most glorious way. Leave it to Wednesday Addams to deliver pure horror, while at the same time educating these oh so basic flesh bags on what really occurred near Plymouth Rock. This film is pure Halloween on Thanksgiving and I love it… to death!

Photo courtesy of Bob’s Burgers Wiki

Bob’s Burgers: Turkey in a Can (S:04 E:05)

The Simpson’s may be the classic animated series to go to when it comes to Halloween specials. But it’s Bob’s Burgers that dominates Thanksgiving with its specials year after year. But I think we can all agree that the episode titled “Turkey in a can” beats them all. Bob is over the families (and Gale) zanny traditions that tend to ruin all his past Thanksgiving dinners. He forbids any shenanigans to go on under his roof and pleads with the family to just love the turkey this year. Obviously, Bob does not get what he wants and his Turkeys keep ending up in the toilet. Who is sabotaging Thanksgiving in the Belcher home?! And what’s the deal with the guy at the meat market? Sadly this episode builds up a lackluster credit song between Linda & Gale. I recommend the credit sequence from the first Thanksgiving special “An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal” instead to put a pep in your holiday step!
Photo courtesy of ToonZone

Over the Garden Wall

This is quite possibly my favorite from the list. Over the Garden Wall is a gorgeous animated piece from Adventure Time and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack’s Patrick McHale. But don’t expect colorful oddities and flatulence jokes within this mini-series. Over the Garden Wall is a love letter to early 1900 seasonal postcards. I know that doesn’t sound thrilling, but the art depicted on these postcards were full of imagination and wonder. Pumpkins with human bodies singing and dancing with little elf children and woodland creatures. To help bring these images to life, McHale called upon Elijah Wood and Collin Dean to voice our two main characters, Wirt and Greg. The story starts with both boys lost in the woods. We do not know why or how they got there (just like classic fairy tales Snow White and Hansel & Gretel), but it sets the tone for a truly wonderful piece of early Americana. Expect harvest folklore and ghost stories of old. There could be deeper meanings lying deep within the mini-series, but I’ll let you look into that one yourself. Be forewarned, a song about potatoes and molasses is sure to be stuck in your noggin days after watching, and that my friends, is a rock fact.

So there you have it! A few fall specials to get you salivating all over yourself before that deep, rich aroma of turkey cooking in the oven wafts through your home. Maybe even make some of these your playlist throughout Thanksgiving Day! Just don’t upset Uncle Joe by switching the game on him because you want to watch your cartoons. Happy Holidays!